Public Statements

Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, imagine you lived in a town where the mayor and the council were fighting over a tax increase of the budget, and the mayor of the town said: If I don't get my way, I'm going to stop paying the police department, close the schools, turn off the street lights and not pick up the trash. That mayor would get recalled by the end of the week.

That is what the Republican majority is doing to the country here tonight. They made it very clear they don't like the Affordable Care Act. Forty-six times they voted to repeal it.

Now they're saying something a little bit different. They're saying to the country: you can either have a budget that makes the country run without the Affordable Care Act, or you can't have a country with a budget that runs.

This is not the way to legislate; this is not the way to do the people's business. We should have the Senate bill on the floor and vote on it. This will surely cause a shutdown of the government.

It is an outrage, it is an abandonment of responsibility, and all Members should oppose these amendments so we can keep this government open.